Art of BlockingWe generally recommend using one-handed weapons that'll allow you to carry a shield. Having a shield equipped does much more than simply dampen the damage sustained from enemy attacks. More importantly, a successful block will temporarily stun an attacker. During this stun, the enemy won't be able to attack or even guard. It's during this quick stun where you should make your move.

Typically, we stick to the block-slash-slash-block standard of fighting. When up against an enemy (most notably an armed person), start the fight by taking a guarding position. Block the enemy's first attack to stun him, then quickly come in with two fast attacks. After the two attacks land, throw up your shield again to intercept the inevitable counter from the enemy. If you only throw two attacks after each successful block, you pretty much guarantee that you'll never get hit with your guard down.

This style of fighting improves both your Blade (or Blunt) skills as well as your Block skill. When you become an expert of Block, you'll gain the ability to knock back opponents simply by guarding. This random occurrence will stun opponents even longer than a normal block, letting you get in three or four quick attacks before guarding again.

Mobility in CombatIf you want to not get hit (who doesn't?) then you're going to have to learn to be light on your feet. Being able to move around to an area that's advantageous for you can be the difference between dying and being the victor in battle.

Retreating from a battle is not always a bad option. Though we think it's pretty weak to run away from a fight entirely, we do not object to backpedaling away from an enemy to get some breathing room. Backpedaling will let you cast some healing spells or simply let you move to a more advantageous fighting spot. If you're surrounded by a number of enemies, try to lure them into a tight area where they're limited to attacking you one-on-one.

Another useful way to maneuver is to jump on top of things that your opponents can't mount. Most enemies are unable to get atop large rocks and buildings, and that makes those areas safe areas to camp. Once out of harm's way, you can either restore your health or resort to dirty fighting tactics. Equip a bow or a long blade (claymores work great) and hit the enemies from your high position while they franticly try to get to you.

Control the OddsThere's only one you but a nearly endless supply of enemies. Simply charging into a dungeon, hacking and slashing, will likely leave you in some pretty rough situations. Try to move through areas slowly so as to not get the attention of more enemies than necessary. If you can keep battles limited to one enemy at a time, you'll have a lot better chance at coming out of a dungeon alive.

Even if enemies are next to each other, there are ways you can lure them out one-by-one. It's good to always have a long-range attack available, whether by means of a bow attack or by using a projectile magical spell. If you stay hidden in the sneaking position, you can usually hit one enemy without alerting the others. That single enemy will charge towards you, letting you retreat to a safe place to continue the fight.

You can also limit the number of enemies you fight by moving through doorways. If you're attacked by a number of enemies, retreat to a doorway and pass through to load up a new area. More often than not, some enemies will stay behind the doorway while only one or two pass through. This will let you fight off the baddies in fairer numbers.

PoisonPoison may be a tool of cowardly fighters, but our very own Erik Brudvig sure loves to use it. By using a Damage Health potion, you can poison your blade and poison the next enemy you hit, quickly draining his health for a few seconds.

With an enemy poisoned, you can throw up your shield and retreat, letting the poison do the dirty work. When the poison has worn off, use another potion on your blade and repeat the process. Using this tactic, you can easily defeat enemies that are more powerful than you. (This trick is very useful in the Imperial City Arena.)

Using Weapon Skills

Disarming OpponentsAt the journeyman skill level, blade, blunt and hand-to-hand skills gain the disarm attack. To disarm an opponent, hold the attack button while moving either left or right. It can be hard to hit an opponent while holding sideways on the controls. Here's what we recommend: While holding down the attack, sort of wiggle between left and right on the controls. Your character will stutter back and forth, and then perform the attack without actually moving anywhere. When you disarm an opponent, be sure to pick up his weapon so that he can't get it back! (In the Arena, you can't pick up an opponent's weapon. However, attacking while he tries to pick it up will usually keep him away.)

Though honestly, even when you can easily execute it, the disarm isn't a very reliable attack. The chance for disarming an opponent is pretty small (even with a high combat skill). It's good to try the attack in difficult Arena matches, but don't rely on it when crawling dungeons.

KnockbackWhen you've leveled a combat skill up to the expert level, you'll gain the ability to perform a knockback move. To execute this attack, simply hold down the attack button while holding backwards on the controls. You're character will backpedal a bit while performing the attack, making it difficult to land. To counteract this effect, here's what we do: Hold down the attack button and move towards the opponent, then quickly press and hold away. With practice, you should be able to make this attack connect most of the time. Even when it does fail to connect, you should be far enough from opponents that they can't hit back. Once you've knocked down an opponent, quickly run to his body and start executing quick attacks.

Knockbacks are more common than disarms and are actually very useful. The attack can be especially helpful (and easy to execute) when pinned against a wall. Still, it's important that you do not rely solely on the knockback attack. You're generally best off sticking to the block-slash-slash-block fighting style.

ParalyzeOnce you've become a master of your combat skill, you'll learn the paralyze attack. To execute the attack, simply hold down the attack button and press forward. Your character will lunge forward with an attack that has a chance to paralyze. Emphasis on chance. In fact, it's more like fat chance.

The paralyze attack hardly ever paralyzes an enemy. It's fun to use (and very effective if it works properly) but not at all the best way to fight. Usually, performing the attack will put you right in front of your enemy. The recovery you suffer from executing the attack is almost always longer than the stagger of the enemy, meaning that you will (most of the time) get hit immediately after attacking. On occasion, the paralyze strike will push an enemy backwards even if it doesn't paralyze. Still, the best way to use the move (if you insist) is carefully. Execute the attack from far away so that your weapon just barely comes in contact with the enemy. If you're careful about it, you can perform the attack while keeping yourself far enough away to avoid a counter attack.